Category: IA-SOS

Secretary of State Paul Pate has been using a shell game to hide how little money he’s raised for his reelection, and it’s not clear if he’ll even use the money he has in the bank. Pate reported that his 2017 fundraising numbers ended with $238,791 cash-on-hand. But he also had $283,500 in outstanding loans. He raised just under $26,000 last year. Oddly, his report showed both a loan of $200,000 and a loan repayment of $200,000. That’s where Pate gets into some intentional fudging of his numbers. Pate loaned his campaign $200,000 back on December 29, 2016. He loaned another $20,000 […]

Few elections have ever held more longterm consequences for a state than the upcoming 2018 races in Iowa. A few of the issues at stake: the survival of public unions and Planned Parenthood, the existence of mental healthcare services, and the state’s own political identity as a purple or red state. Iowa could soon become the next Kansas for decades to come, or a Democratic wave could return balance to the Statehouse. But for the Democratic Party here, 2018 presents one more opportunity that could outlive all of those outcomes: the chance to vote into office a raft of young […]

In the Democratic primary for next year’s secretary of state nomination, Army veteran and former congressional candidate Jim Mowrer begins the race with a large lead. In the poll that Starting Line commissioned with 20/20 Insight, 27% of likely Democratic primary-goers picked Mowrer in the race, compared to 9% for Des Moines small businesswoman Deidre DeJear. When voters were asked if they were leaning toward a candidate, the result was 30% for Mowrer and 12% for DeJear. This is Iowa Democrats’ first primary for the secretary of state office since 1998, when Chet Culver defeated Ned Miller for the nomination. […]